Qualcomm Stadium site contamination being cleaned

Ground near the Q being cleaned up

Recent comments on the contamination under Qualcomm Stadium did not include the latest status.

Ongoing cleanup efforts, under the regulatory oversight of the Regional Water Quality Control Board, and funded by the current owners of the adjacent fuel tank operation, are nearing completion. Millions of gallons of groundwater have been removed and filtered, and the efforts are transitioning to the monitoring phase.

Stringent “best management practices” have been put in place to prevent further contamination. The filtering equipment will remain in place throughout the monitoring phase in case new contaminants are discovered.

I am pleased with the progress and attribute it to the strong participation and cooperation of all of the parties involved.

Gary Strawn

Vice Chairman, RWQCB

Santee

Evidence proves the damage of feral cats

A recent letter writer seems to have missed the reference to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service study on feral cat predation that was at the heart of the original story “Animal lovers divided over feral cats” (April 6).

That study was conducted over a 10-year period nationwide and focused on all causes of population declines among native bird populations. The destructive effect of domestic/feral cat depredation on these populations was fully documented there. Funny how the letter writer decries the use of “anecdotal” support for cat removal; yet his “I’ve never seen” contention that feral cats should be left undisturbed in the wild is entirely anecdotal.

The scientific evidence makes it clear that a choice must be made: Protect native wildlife, or let Tabby eat his way through it.

Eileen Kolkey

San Diego

Expense shows need of Medicare oversight

The U-T San Diego article by reporter Bradley J. Fikes that an ophthalmologist in Florida charged Medicare over $11 million for the drug Lucentis in a year illustrates the quality and quantity control difficulties in limiting the growth of medical costs (“Eye drug is Medicare’s big ticket despite less costly alternative,” front page, April 13).

In this case, a drug that would have cost less than $300,000 would probably have been equally effective (though with a corresponding reduction in the “administrative” income of the service provider).

And the billed amount claimed that over 5,500 doses were administered in a year, or nearly one every 20 minutes for eight hours every working day.

Could there really be that many patients needing that care in the West Palm Beach area?

More effective management of Medicare costs is clearly needed.

Geoffrey Crask

Carlsbad

Corporation with SS plan would be in trouble

Strictly speaking, Social Security is not a Ponzi scheme. as a recent letter writer characterized it. One difference is that contributing to Social Security is required, whereas contributing to a Ponzi scheme is voluntary. Other than that, they smell very much alike.

The main feature of both is that early members of either plan reap benefits far beyond what they contributed while those who join later are left holding the bag.

Ida May Fuller, the first Social Security beneficiary to receive a recurring monthly payment, retired in 1940 at age 65. She had contributed less than $25 total to Social Security. Ms. Fuller lived to be 100, during which time she collected nearly $24,000 from Social Security.

On the other hand, by 2033 the Social Security fund will be exhausted and future benefits will have to be severely cut.

Granted, Congress could raise the age of entitlement, increase the withholding, etc., but why pour more money into this financially flawed program?

Like nearly all government entitlement programs, they are long on promises and short on results. Moreover, if a corporation established an investment plan similar to Social Security, the principals would be arrested for fraud, and rightly so.

Mel Pinney

San Diego

Social Security add

The April 11 letter writer is correct. Social Security is not a Ponzi scheme — it’s worse. In a Ponzi scheme the money coming in from new investors is used to pay previous investors, until the income and outgo don’t support the payments. Then it falls apart. But, Social Security is a government-mandated program imposed upon all workers in the 1930s.

The incoming money (tax) came, not to a Ponzi scheme fund, but directly to the U.S. Treasury. So, when the funds came in from a growing work force, with little payout demand, our elected representatives spent the money.

Now, with Baby Boomers swelling the Social security demand, if there was any idea of a Trust Fund it is empty. Social Security therefore became an unfunded program in competition with all other government programs (defense, foreign affairs, etc.) every year. The idea of privatizing is only an idea driven by the government having screwed it up.

Leland E. Bolt

San Diego

Supports the idea of a downtown stadium

This letter is in response to the April 12 letter “Downtown is a bad location for stadium,” the writer refers to the age of Fenway Park. The owners of the Boston Red Sox in the past 10 years have made over $250 million dollars in renovations to include adding seats, premium seats, sponsored areas, expanded concessions and merchandising stands. They have also added new restrooms and scoreboards.

What in Qualcomm Stadium has significantly been upgraded in past 10 years? I can’t remember much if anything. The restrooms are in horrible condition. I don’t think the piping in the restrooms has been upgraded since it was built. Maybe that is why there is always problems during charger games with the plumbing. The drainage system in the seating area is terrible to nonexistent. When it rains, the water has no place to go, so it seeps through the concrete and continually drips all the way down to field concourse for the next four days. Check out club level after a rain and you will see trash cans everywhere collecting rain water.

Then there is talk to build a new stadium next to Qualcomm Stadium. The trolley station at Qualcomm is OK, if you leave the game mid-fourth quarter, otherwise you will be waiting at least 45 minutes to an hour in line that reaches all the way from the trolley station sometimes to gate H. There is a major trolley station at 12th and Imperial that would be able to handle the fan base that would use the trolley system.

I think keeping the stadium in Mission Valley is a terrible mistake that would cost not only the Chargers a lot more money, but the city taxpayers. I’m all for a new stadium downtown.

David A. Huntington

Chula Vista

Disliking ‘like’ as a conjunction

Regarding “Does ‘like’ sound good, like a conjunction should?” (Richard Lederer, April 12), far be it from me to question a literary authority like Richard Lederer on English usage, but since he took issue with Tennyson, Walter Cronkite and Logan Jenkins, I respectfully challenge his acceptance of the word like as a conjunction.

“Like” may often be bent to serve a purpose for which it was never intended, but one cannot deign to offer the excuse that “everybody does it” to justify its continued misuse. While we expect to hear it used wrongly by teenyboppers, celebrities, congressmen, television evangelists, sportscasters — and even the occasional journalist — we instinctively cringe when we hear it from mature speakers or see it in print.